WASHINGTON - The vast majority of airstrikes launched against Sunni militant targets in Syria have been carried out by U.S. war planes and ship-based Tomahawk cruise missiles, military officials said Tuesday, in what they described as the successful beginning of a long campaign to degrade and destroy the Islamic State.

In disclosing the identities of the five Sunni Arab nations that joined or supported the attacks in Syria early Tuesday morning - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar - the Obama administration sought to paint a picture of an international coalition resolute in its determination to take on the Sunni militant group.

Jordan said that "a number of Royal Jordanian Air Force fighters destroyed" a number of targets but did not specify where; the Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the air force "launched its first strikes against ISIL targets" on Monday evening, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

U.S. officials said that Saudi and Bahrain also took active part in the strikes and that Qatar played a "supporting" role.

Buying some space

But Lt. Gen. William Mayville, director of operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the majority of strikes were carried out by U.S. warplanes and cruise missiles, with the aim of hindering the ability of the Islamic State to cross the border into Iraq and attack Iraqi forces.

"What we have been doing over these last couple of weeks and what last night's campaign was about was simply buying them some space so that they can get on the offensive," Mayville said.

Tomahawks launced

Military officials said the airstrikes began at midnight Monday local time with the launching of some 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the guided missile destroyer Arleigh Burke at positions held in Aleppo by the al-Qaida-linked network Khorasan and at Islamic State targets around the group's headquarters in Raqqa.

That first stage of the attack was conducted solely by the United States.

The second stage began soon afterward, with U.S. warplanes joined by fighters and bombers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan, targeting Islamic State compounds, barracks and vehicles in northern Syria.

A third wave, which also included the Arab nations, targeted Islamic State positions in eastern Syria, Pentagon officials said.

A senior military official said that during the three waves of Syria strikes, the United States and its Arab allies dropped almost as many bombs in one night as the United States had used during all of its operations in Iraq against the Islamic State.

Before and after shots

At a briefing for reporters, military officials showed before and after shots of the targets hit in Syria.

In one case, the military bombed what officials said was an Islamic State finance center in the city of Raqqa, targeting and destroying electronic and communications equipment on the roof, while leaving the rest of the building intact.